Published: 18 July 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
After gaining police permission to burn a Torah, an activist claimed he never intended to go through with the act.
Ahmed Alloush, a 32-year-old Swedish national, announced last week that he would burn books of Torah outside the Israeli embassy on Saturday.
Alloush had received police permission to burn the books, after another case in which an activist burned a Koran outside a mosque in Stockholm.
But when the gathering went ahead, Alloush announced he had never intended to burn any books.
“As a Muslim, I don’t burn books,” he said, speaking to Swedish media, explaining that his goal was simply to throw a spotlight on the Swedish laws that allow for such events to take place.
“Nobody should be doing that,” he said, as he held a copy of the Koran in his hand. He threw to the ground a lighter he had brought with him.
The possibility of such a deeply controversial event shocked Israel and Jewish communities in Sweden and around the globe.
Israeli leaders on Friday strongly condemned the intent to burn sacred texts after Swedish police announced on Friday that it would allow the burning.
“I strongly condemn Swedish authorities’ decision to the burning of the Hebrew Bible in front of the Israeli embassy in its country,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“The State of Israel takes very seriously this shameful decision that harms the most sacred [scripture] of the Jewish people. The holy books of all religions must be respected,” Netanyahu said.
Historically, the burning of burning of Jewish books often heralded times of extreme persecution, including the Holocaust.
